1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and, more specifically, to methods of efficiently utilizing space allocated to storing data processing systems and associated peripheral devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Computers perform many functions in today""s society, often performing tasks and monitoring processes with minimal or no human intervention. Many businesses and service providers may have rooms or laboratories filled with numerous computers, all running various applications or monitoring various activities for the business or service provider. Often, to provide the applications or monitoring needed or desired by the business or service provider, very large numbers of computers are required to perform all the various tasks.
The rooms in which these computers are located are often very crowded. In addition to each individual computer or system unit, each computer also includes a monitor, a keyboard and mouse. Indeed, it is a common problem that there are often more computers than available space in which to store them.
One of the inefficiencies with storing a large number of computers within a finite amount of space is the keyboard redundancy. For every xe2x80x9cnxe2x80x9d number of computers that are stored, there are typically xe2x80x9cnxe2x80x9d number of keyboards also stored. However, keyboards are rather large and bulky and take up a rather large amount of space, especially when large numbers of computers are involved, as is typically true in most computer labs. As mentioned above, however, many or most of the computers within the room may be performing functions in which little or no direct human interaction is involved. Often times, the vast majority of computers within the room need a keyboard or other peripheral input device to interact with a computer so infrequently that it does not make sense to store one keyboard for every computer in the room. Therefore, many if not most of the keyboards within the computer lab or room are redundant.
Thus, a system for reducing the number of keyboards required to service a lab full of computers is desirable. It would be even more desirable, if, for some large number of computers, only a few keyboards were needed to service all of the computers within the lab. Thus, a keyboard that can be used with more than one computer is desirable. This arrangement would free up a large amount of space, thereby increasing the capacity of computers that could be stored in the same amount of space.
The present invention minimizes the number of keyboards required to service a large number of computers. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a peripheral input device, such as a keyboard or mouse, and a plurality of data processing systems. Each of the data processing systems has a wireless receiver for receiving wireless communications from the peripheral input device. The peripheral input device includes a computer selector for selecting one of the plurality of data processing systems to which the peripheral input device will interact. The peripheral input device also includes a wireless transmitter for providing communications with any one of the plurality of data processing systems.